Category “Evolution”

For those Christians who believe their Bible is the word of God, the literal truth, one man is held up as the antichrist, he is Charles Darwin, their reasoning?, for leading millions of Christians astray with a very different account of creation, evolution by natural selection. In this new HBO film we get a look into this fast-growing branch of Christians in America, who have a very hardline, literal and creationist view of the Bible.
Through a selection of interview with Darwin historians, biographers, ministers and creationist Christians, along with letters and writings of Darwin,...

In this National Geographic documentary, narrated by Liam Nelson, we see archaeologist, Randy White crawl deep into the caves beneath the hills of France, in search for a special moment in human evolution. An era cloaked in mystery, when with hardly a change in appearance humans began behaving in a way they had never behaved before. White wants to find out how it was that our ancestors became truly human.
It's possible Randy White could one day make a discover as startling as that made back in 1994, when others found underground caverns, filled with over 300 images, some of which were...

Narrated by Liam Neeson this Nova documentary examines the forces that might have helped contribute to the breakthrough which allowed us humans prevail over all other hominids such as the Neanderthals who co-existed with us for many thousands of years. This film also explores where this power of mind might take...

David starts his journey in Darwin’s home at Down House in Kent, where Darwin worried and puzzled over the origins of life. David goes back to his roots in Leicestershire, where he hunted for fossils as a child, and where another schoolboy unearthed a significant find in the 1950s. And he revisits Cambridge University, where both he and Darwin studied, and where many years later the DNA double helix was discovered, providing the foundations for genetics.
At the end of his journey in the Natural History Museum in London, David concludes that Darwin’s great insight revolutionized the way...

Using Darwin’s own diary and field notes as a travel guide, retrace Darwin’s expedition beyond the Galapagos to uncover the forgotten evidence that inspired his revolutionary work. He wasn’t a mathematician. He wasn’t an inventor. He was just a 20-something guy who liked to poke around in the dirt.
Yet, Charles Darwin developed a theory of evolution so significant that it forms the bedrock of biology, and so radical it is still controversial in some circles today. In 1859, when he was 50, Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” the work that outlined the theory of natural...

Meet “Ida,” the small “missing link” found in Germany that’s created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins. In this documentary paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical missing-link species in primate evolution.
The fossil, he says, bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs. “This is the first link to all humans,” Hurum, of the Natural...

Growing Up in the Universe was a series of lectures given by Richard Dawkins as part of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, in which he discussed the evolution of life in the universe. The lectures were first broadcast in 1991, in the form of five one-hour episodes.
To start off part one, Dawkins discusses the amazing capabilities of the human body and contrasts these with the limited capabilities of computers and other man-made machines. He uses a small totem pole (which is used in ancestor worship) to illustrate the importance of studying our ancestors to understand how we’ve...

Flock of Dodos examines the disagreements that proponents of intelligent design have with the scientific consensus position of evolution. The evolutionarily famous dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is a now-extinct bird that lived on the Island of Mauritius, which is approximately 500 miles east of Madagascar. When Portuguese sailors arrived on the island, the possible combination of over-hunting and introduction of new predators (i.e. pigs, macaques) seems to have led to its extinction by approximately 1700. Due to its lack of fear of humans and inability to fly, the dodo was easy prey, and thus...

In January 1976 news broke of a phenomenon. Pictures showed an upright bald ape called Oliver, who appeared to be a cross between a human and a chimpanzee; What scientists refer to as a humanzee.
Oliver’s photographs shocked the world, and in the media frenzy that followed he became an international celebrity. In Japan his human-like behavior earned him cult status. In New York some journalists described him as the missing link. Others dubbed him Bigfoot. Oliver gradually faded from the spotlight and eventually disappeared.
Now 30 years later, he has been found still alive. And with...